Andre Landsman

This represents the yellow star Andre had to wear.

A hero is a brave man of courage who sets his mind to do anything he believes in. He is a great noble person whom you idolize for his self-motivation, perseverance and positive thinking. He is someone who does a very brave act, wholeheartedly without considering himself. A hero can be described as a person who believes he can make a difference and is willing to prove it. Everyone is capable of performing a heroic act, if he sets his mind to it, despite his financial situation.

My grandfather has had a best friend for more than 50 years. His name is Andre Landsman. He is relevant to me because he is a survivor of the Holocaust and he is part of our family.

He was born in Hungary in the City of Budapest. It was much like downtown Montreal, Paris, Vienna or Warsaw. His parents were sent off to the concentration camps when he was only 11 years old. In 1936, anti-Semitism was very prevalent and visible. The people in Hungary could really feel it. There was a lot of propaganda in the newspapers and the war began to escalate. By 1940, Jews had to identify themselves by wearing a yellow Star of David on an arm band. If a Jew was caught without it, he was beaten or sent to jail.

The Hungarians were very passive and naive. They believed that they were being sent off to labor camps. Later in the 1940s, the Jews had to move to the ghettos. It was all blocked off and you could not escape. Andre lived in a ghetto apartment between the ages of nine and 13, with 15 to 20 other families. They had to search for food and clean water. In one apartment, there were a lot of people and it was very crowded. They slept on the floor or on a mattress. During his time in the ghetto, he could hear gunfire and the bombarding by German tanks. Andre could not leave at night or he would get shot. He still remembers the stench and the body parts in the ghetto.

The Nazis were slowly loading the Jews from the ghetto onto cattle carts to bring them to other concentration camps around Europe. The Hungarians had no choice but to cooperate with the Nazis. Andre’s parents were taken away and killed at Auschwitz by German soldiers. He remembers that one quiet night when everything was silent, he was rescued by the Russian army.

Andre was an only child. Devastated, hungry, shocked and lost at the age of 15, he was robbed of his childhood, his parents and an education. He was brought to Montreal by JIAS (Jewish Immigration Aid Services). They boarded him with a family named Berlin until he was adopted. Andre began studying in grade nine at the age of 16 at Baron Byng High School on St. Urbain Street. The school does not exist anymore. The premises are now a charity organization called Sun Youth. He did exceptionally well his first year and his teachers moved him up directly to grade 11. They realized his potential and recognized his determination to do well and succeed. Upon graduation, Andre was adopted by Benjamin and Minnie Brownstein who already had five children of their own.

Andre Landsman made an impression on me because of his outstanding survival story at such a young age. I cannot even begin to imagine my life with no mother and father to guide me. I admire his courage and willingness to move on with his life and create a large, harmonious family of his own. He is an exceptional human being in every sense of the word. He will never refuse you if you need him. He volunteers countless hours at our synagogue, and he is always there when they need a minivan. Andre is also an extremely charitable man in the Jewish community. He lectures and is an active member of many executive boards of Jewish institutions such as Combined Jewish Appeal, Jewish General Hospital, JNF, Israel Bonds and the Shaar Hashomayim Congregation amongst others. He is a gentle man with a kind heart who always has a nice word to say about everyone. Andre always gives me a big hug when he sees me and he can’t wait to hear me at my Bar Mitzvah. He tells me it will be special. I think he is very special.